Oceanario de Lisboa

We went to the aquarium this last friday and it was amazing! I've always throught aquariums were kinda cool but I have a new love for them now, I don't know if it's because I'm older or if this one is just really rad. It's so relaxing just sitting, staring at a hugeee tank full of crazy, exotic fish! It gets you thinking. Gonna get alll hippie right now but... There is seriously so much out there we don't know about! Under the sea is the biggest mystery of them all, we know more about space than the deep sea. How amazing would it be to go in one of those submarines so deep and witness those crazy fish that look like christmas lights?! You've seen them on the discovery channel! How do they even live?!! This is soooooo intriguing to me. And, fish are always in their own packs, their own species. How weird. And penguins only have one mate?! And then I got to thinking about all the amazing places I want to travel in this world. Lisbon, check. But remote parts of Asia and Africa, to see the true wilderness.. Iceland, New Zealand, Dubai, so many places to see in this crazy world. How CRAZY would it be to see blue whale. I can't even imagine.

So yes, my friday was pretty introspective... A lot of thinking, planning, saving to do. Thankful I'm only 20, and have visited many places already thanks to my amazing parents ;) Saturday night I hung out with my host sister, Nocas, and her friends... it was her birthday weekend so she had about 15 girls come over and drink, eat, etc. Everyone was soooo nice but the language barrier became a problem so I ended up going out to Bairro Alto to meet up with friends. Thennn today, sunday, was the most unproductive day in years for me. Didn't. do. anything. I was literally in bed all day blogging and watching Gossip Girl, I probably should have been applying for internships and studying my Portuguese. Hmm. It was cloudy - don't judge. :)

Anyway, some photos of the aquarium:

On The 25th Day

I'm so bad at updated this blog! I'm sorry, I've never been good at "diaries." But here goes, the weather in Lisboa has gotten so much better it's making me really happy. Around high 60s in the day and sunny (most of the time) and low 50s high 40s at night... it's crazy how much the weather changes my mood. Classes started last week, so on top of my Portuguese language course (which is going.. and going... no real results yet) I'm taking Portuguese + Brazilian Literature, The European Union and Migration + Globalization in Portugal. It's all pretty interesting, just really really hard to pay attention to broken English for 2 hours each class. But I'm excited, it'll help me learn Portuguese and the teachers are all extremely nice.

There's this park by my apartment I've been going to a lot, called Jardim da Estrela (Star Park).. It's amazing, families and pups hanging out all over the place just having picnics or playing games. It's seriously like a movie. I wish I could take Cody :( There's this cafe there too that has awesome food, my go-to-lunch: tosta. Basically a panini with cheese and some other jazz. There's actually around 3 main park areas around my apartment and I live so close to the main attraction of Lisbon, I really love it. I constantly go around my neighborhood by myself for a walk or espresso and think to myself, "I can't believe I'm living in Lisbon for 3 more months." hahah- it's true!

Today I went across the river with my host mom (she leads excursions/tours around isolated areas of Portugal)... I can't remember the name of the town we were in for the life of me, but, it was where all the trade and commerce went down in 1915. Really old, interesting, amazing view of the river and the bridge that resembles the Golden Gate in San Fran! The bridge was originally named Salazar Bridge but then Salazar got overthrown and since 1974 it's been called the 25 de Abril Bridge (that's the date). Fun fact. The little trip was fun with my host mom, she's so kind and funny... but there's definitely a language gap. And most of the people on the excursion were older and knew very, very little English sooo that was hard. But so nice :)

Hmm... that's all for now. I'll update this more I promise. (mom, dad.)

Jardim de Estrela, that park I was talking about... so perfect!

Where I went with my host mom...>>

Pastel de Nata in Belem -

said to be the best place to buy this pastry, I agree! :)

Brennan and I, chillen at the sheep by our apartments.

Excursion: Évora and Esporão

We went a little south of Lisbon this weekend with the group to Évora and Esporão. It was really fun, the 20 (or so) of us took a bus first to Évora, which is a little village... We saw chapels and cathedrals, beautiful architechure and ate a lot of FOOD. I think we were at a restuarant 5 hours out of our one day there, (dinner and lunch).. but I'm getting kind of used to this long European meal time. It's definitely nice actually talking to whoever you're with and having time to rest between courses. Bonded with the group that night playing crazy, funny drinking games in the hotel (realization: I have no rhythm).

Then we went off to Esporão which is probably my favorite part of the weekend. We went to a vineyard (Herdade), and just relaxed. The weather was sooooooooo beautiful I wanted nothing more than to get in a bathing suit and swim, probably the hottest day since I've been in Portugal. The vineyard was gorgeous, when we got there they set us up a "buffet-style" lunch with little mushroom and cheese sandwiches, salads, olive oil and bread tasting, marinated fava beans, and my favorite new thing: really fresh cheese (I have to find out exactly which cheese) with pumpkin jam . SO GOOD!! And then a rice pudding dessert with vanilla bean, cinnamon and sliced apples on top - yumm. Oops. I feel like all I talk about is food, haha :)

We relaxed for hours just laying in the grass and talking, then toured the vineyard and I picked up a jar of their jam :) Beautiful weekend. Here's some shots:

aging, aging, aging wine.

Classes start tomorrow. Oh boyyyyyyy.

p.s. some of us decided on taking surfing lessons when it gets warmer.

SO STOKED :)